Asheville Buncombe Food Policy Council, February 2017, report of retail organizations participating in Buncombe County.

Note...do we want to include JUST Buncombe?

What is Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB)?

Market buck programs are an evidenced-based approach to increase the SNAP purchasing power of low income families. Developed by Michigan’s Fair Food Network (FFN), DUFB doubles the value of SNAP/EBT benefits spent at farmers markets and grocery stores. Dollars earned ($1/ $1 spent) purchasing produce can be used to buy local fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables helping people bring home more healthy fruits and vegetables while supporting local farmers.

FFN has been working with the USDA to expand this successful program nationally and is providing technical assistance to support this growth for only the cost of travel. The 2014 Farm Bill includes $100 million administered by USDA to support the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) grants modeled after successful Market/Double Up programs.

Hasn’t this been done here before?

ASAP offered a “market bucks” program during August for several years at the City Tailgate Market with some success. Other WNC communities have successfully implemented farmers’ market programs on a longer, perhaps more successful basis, in reaching low-income families. However , locally most low income families don’t shop at tailgate markets. In contrast our Double Bucks program will focus on small retail. Note: ASAP continues to work serving low-income families and is currently working with WIC to create incentives to shop at farmers markets for WIC clients.

What has the success been with retail market efforts?

In Michigan’s 2013 4-month retail pilot 3,600+ Double Up cards were distributed; 43% of funds were redeemed; 88% of customers surveyed reported buying more fruits and vegetables; 57% of surveyed reported buying less junk food; and $16K in Double Up bucks were spent on Michigan produce.

Who are our local partners in this work?

Asheville Buncombe Food Policy Council (lead), Bountiful Cities, Buncombe County HHS (Phil Hardin, Jan Shepherd, Rachel Nygaard), Cooperative Extension, French Broad Food Coop, MAHEC, MANNA Foodbank, Mission Community Investment, UNC Asheville, Youth Empowered Solutions, YWCA. Regional and Statewide participants in this discussion include Mountain Wise and Durham’s Reinvestment Partners.

What is CHIP’s role:

CHIP supports the DUFB as an integral part of the planning team providing a results-based accountability framework for planning, implementation and evaluation. CHIP also works to connect this work to the larger CHIP efforts and to the many diverse CHIP partners who can help communicate and support reaching low-income families in Buncombe County.

PROJECTED OUTCOMES (to be collected and housed in Community Scorecard):

• How much: # DUFB participants, $ awarded for produce purchase, DUFB $ spent
• How well: % DUFB $ spent
• How much: % Participants buying more fruits and vegetables

Current Status & Action Steps

• Partners have worked with Michigan’s Fair Food Network to develop a plan for implementing a Double Up Food Bucks pilot within the next year in preparation for applying for a USDA FINI grant to support establishing a DUFB program with multiple retail outlets.
• Buncombe initiated and is part of a learning collaborative with several communities (Durham, Wilmington and west of Buncombe with Mountain Wise) and this is expected to eventually become a statewide initiative as with Michigan. Several Food Coops using similar systems are interested and likely the French Broad Food Coop will be the easiest retail for the pilot ($200k in EBT sales last year). (Durham has contacted Food Lion and SaveMor and Hopey are also options)
• Discussions have taken place with multiple funders and and a grant application has been ..

The next steps are securing funding and the lead agency. Conversations are taking place with several funders (WNCCF, Mission CI, NC State) to support the pilot and likely some crowdfunding will also be implemented. MountainWise likely will be the lead agency when we initiate our USDA FINI grant, however we are exploring who can house this year 1.